Non-original photos and images used on this site
are given source credit,
with links often provided to the original websites.
Hopefully, this will be sufficient to cover their usage.

This is a completely non-commercial endeavor.
If the use of any photo or graphic is not desired
-and you are the owner-
Please post a comment. I will delete it or them.

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OUR FIRST ALL-NEW MALL ARTICLE IN YEARS

HAS RECENTLY BEEN POSTED! 

North Central Texas'

SHER-DEN MALL 

Joined Our Directory!

Photo from https://photos.google.com / Jimmy Ramsey

Click here...

https://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com/search/label/Texas%27%20Sher-Den%20Mall

On our website, you'll find illustrated histories and other ephemera
about America's very first regional shopping centers and malls...
from Seattle's NORTHGATE CENTER
to New York City's CROSS COUNTY CENTER...
and down to Dallas' BIG TOWN MALL.
Moreover, you'll find articles about malls
in every one of the 50 states!

Four MHoF articles 

have been improved and expanded! 

First, we have a nineteen-photo spread 

taken inside the new JOHN WANAMAKER store

at Long Island's GARDENS OF GREAT NECK CENTER...

All from May 1951.

http://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com/search/label/Gardens%20of%20Great%20Neck%20Center

Next, we have a twenty-photo HALLE'S collection, 

taken at Greater Cleveland's WESTGATE CENTER.

This photo tour dates back to March 1954.

http://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com/search/label/Cleveland%20Malls

A twenty-three-photo spread has been added,

depicting the brand new GIMBELS WESTCHESTER

at Yonkers, New York's CROSS COUNTY CENTER.  

These images are from September 1955.

http://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20York%27s%20Cross%20County%20Center

Lastly, our twenty-photo tour

of GIMBELS VALLEY STREAM 

-at Long Island's GREEN ACRES CENTER-

shows the store as it appeared in March 1957.

http://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com/search/label/Long%20Island%27s%20Green%20Acres%20Center

Be sure to check out our second sibling site!

is a homage to the vintage 
1940s, '50s and '60s house trailer.

Please click here...
http://portablelevittown.blogspot.com 

Some may deride the contemporary American shopping mall as a shop till you drop, cathedral of conspicuous consumption; a manifestation of our society's affluenza epidemic. In many ways, such an assessment is accurate. However, this was not always the case. In the early days, the typical mall-type center was markedly different than the modern model.

In the 1950s and '60s, the shopping mall was an "everything in one place place". There would be one, or even two, 5 & 10-type stores, a drug store, supermarket, bowling alley, professional concourse of medical offices and even a church or chapel. Tenant mixes were geared more toward middle market stores, providing things that people actually needed. Also, fashion shows, pageants and public events were held regularly, making the early shopping mall a true community center.

A circa-1963 plan of Atlanta's LENOX SQUARE, which was one of the first major malls in the Southeast. In its original incarnation, it featured two large anchor department stores (Atlanta-based Rich's and Davison's, a Macy's subsidiary). Stores and services included an S.S. Kresge 5 & 10, S & W Cafeteria, bowling alley, Lenox Square Theatre and Colonial supermarket. There was even a space-age Gulf filling station in the mall's periphery. As they used to say..."It's All There At Lenox Square".

Trademarks of stores and services that were found in many a mid-century mall. The focus then was to provide a wide array of merchandisers under one roof. Tenants ranged from the upmarket "anchor" department store, fashion boutique or men's wear shop to the middle market 5 & 10 / variety store, pharmacy, grocery or cafeteria.

In this snapshot, and the two that follow,  we see typical mid-century shopping mall tenants. F.W. Woolworth (a.k.a. Woolworth's) operated stores in several malls built in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, including this installation at Tampa's WEST SHORE PLAZA SHOPPING CITY.
Photo from Malls Of America Blogspot

The Cherry Hill Grill was an adjunct of the Woolworth's 5 & 10 at New Jersey's CHERRY HILL MALL. Cafeterias and snack bars were a standard mall fixture before fast food restaurants and centralized mall food courts put them out of business in the 1980s.
Photo from http://paul-altobelli.com 

CHERRY HILL MALL included the Food Fair supermarket seen here. Unlike some mall-based supermarkets of the era, it had an entrance into the air-conditioned shopping concourse. Some "mall" grocery stores would have only exterior entries, while others were freestanding structures built in the periphery of the shopping complex. Supermarkets stopped being American mall tenants in the mid-to-late 1970s.  
Photo from http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com

Back in the day -before we all became so jaded- a new shopping mall would open with much fanfare. It was not uncommon for a dedication ceremony to go on for days. Unusual and attention-grabbing stunts might be performed and celebrities would make appearances. Nowadays, a new shopping center tends to open with a big ho-hum...

By the late 20th century, the typical mall was being derided for its generic looks, sameness and predictability. A center in Maine would invariably have the same stores and fast food eateries as one in Southern California, Miami, Kansas City or Seattle. Moreover, the new-style "Anytown USA" mall would look pretty much the same no matter where it was located.

One last impression here...back in the mid-century years, the typical shopping mall was designed utilizing the latest trends in "ultra-modern" architecture. Mall photos from this era often demonstrate stunning, futuristic and unique designs. Unfortunately, such architecture -now referred to as "Mid-Century Modern"- has been all but obliterated by the numerous renovations and "face lifts" performed on older malls over the years.

A lot of the damage was done during the 1980s and '90s when newly-built and remodeled shopping malls became truly UGLY in appearance. The rush to embrace so-called "Post-modern" architecture created the generic "Anytown USA" mall described above. 

The saving grace is that this type of architecture -with its gaudy and glitzy, "faux fancy" look- is now deemed passe' and is being ripped out and replaced by some of the more attractive -and spartan- mall architecture of the 21st century. Of course, we still have the hokey-looking "old timey downtown" style of other new retail structures to contend with...

A recent view of Greater Pittsburgh's SOUTH HILLS VILLAGE. As has been the case with nearly every single mid-20th century shopping mall, the interior has undergone several renovations over the years. An unwritten law in retail states that any shopping mall must be physically updated at least every 10 years...else it will loose favor with the (fickle) buying public.
Photo from Wikipedia / Jim Henderson

Atlanta's LENOX SQUARE, in the here and now. Over the years, the mall has grown from a modest 800,000 square foot into a whopping 1,545,000! There are now over 240 tenants. Needless to say, the present-day complex has NO 5 & 10, supermarket or cafeteria. Nowadays, all that is "there" at Lenox Square is anything but middle-market. Today's roster of toney tenants includes Louis Vuitton, Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Williams-Sonoma, Ralph Lauren, Cartier, Restoration Hardware and Hermes. 

A collection of logos from the typical "Grade A" shopping mall of today. As its classification would imply, this type of shopping hub is populated by exclusive boutiques and stores catering to the more affluent shopper.

Barneys New York, a so-called "luxury department store", originated in Manhattan in 1923. Above, we have the chain's ill-fated NORTHPARK CENTER store, in Dallas, Texas. It opened, with much fanfare, in September 2006 and closed for good in April 2013. 
Photo from Wikipedia / "020808"

Brisbane, California's bebe ["bee bee"] operates stores around the globe. The first opened, in Downtown San Francisco, in 1976. This women's apparel retailer has locations in many of America's Grade A malls. However, there are also several "Grade B" mall branches. The shot above was taken in Miami-Dade's AVENTURA MALL.
Photo from Wikipedia / "CoolCaesar"

The typical Grade B mall might have several of the stores depicted above, but it is not uncommon to see a few of these nameplates at a high-end Grade A mall.

The very first Sunglass Hut, a kiosk-type store, was located in Miami's DADELAND MALL and began business in 1971. Today, the chain, a division of Italy's Luxottica Group, operates stores around the world. The NATICK MALL location, outside of Boston, is seen above.
Photo from Wikipedia / John Phelan

The Finish Line chain originated, in 1976, with a franchised Athlete's Foot store in Downtown Indianapolis. In 1981, the first Finish Line locations were established. Today, the Indy-based retailer operates over six hundred stores. The photo above shows the NORTHSHORE CENTER location, also outside of Boston.
Photo from Wikipedia / John Phelan 

Today, with all of the unwelcoming atmosphere created by so-called "codes of conduct" and camera-grabbing security guards, one might get the impression that they are only welcome in a mall for as long as the charge or debit card is in use. When the spending spree is over, one is -apparently- expected to make tracks. This is in opposition to the old-fashioned concept of a mall, where great lengths were taken to try and keep you in the place for as long as possible, whether you were buying anything or not.

During the 1970s and '80s, America was in a full-throttle shopping mall building boom. New retail square footage hit its peak position in 1985. However, between 1989 and 1993, shopping center construction starts dropped by seventy percent. By the late 1990s, the notorious "dead mall" syndrome had appeared.

There have been several explanations given for this phenomenon, where once-vibrant retail hubs become virtually vacant ghost towns devoid of tenants and shoppers.

The most obvious reasons for the proliferation of moribund malls in the United States are the advent of televised home shopping channels, in 1982, and introduction of online retailing, in the 1990s. 

As I see it, the primary reason for many of the dead, dying -or redeveloped- malls is simply this...there were too many built in the United States during the 1970s and '80s. It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that a medium-sized American city such as Toledo, Ohio could only -realistically- support one large fully-enclosed shopping mall. FOUR opened in the metropolitan area between 1969 and 1980, so it was inevitable that some would eventually fail. Just one -FRANKLIN PARK MALL- remains in business today.

This shopping mall malaise, a hangover from the nation's overbuilding binge, has been repeated in over-malled cities and towns from coast to coast over the past two decades.

Along with all of the over development of the 1970s and '80s, a few other dead mall generators might be mentioned. There has been a precipitous drop in our buying power since 1970. The end result was that the typical American did not have as much disposable income as they did during the halcyon years of the nation's suburbanization and shopping mall development.

With less discretionary income, John Q. Public could no longer afford to shop at the typical mall as much, where prices for merchandise were higher due to "common area fees" levied on all tenants. These surcharges paid for mallway maintenance and heating and cooling of the areas. In the 1950s, '60s and early '70s, electric power was plentiful and cheap.

This changed drastically during the mid-1970s, when monthly power bills began to escalate (and never stopped!). This inevitably caused the prices for mall-bought merchandise to rise, while -at the same time- the purchasing power of the general public was shrinking. In essence, the underpinnings of the dead mall syndrome were being established, although they would not manifest themselves for several years.

After some 20 years of over development and market saturation, "Grade C" and "D" shopping malls in America were dead and dying. By the late 1990s, demolition crews -ripping down once-vibrant centers of commerce- were being seen more and more.
Photo from Mike Cohen